One South African writes movingly of his impressions of that day 20 years ago here. Yesterday, as part of a commemorative event, thousands retraced the steps Mandela took as he first glimpsed a future where he would no longer be behind bars. The Guardian describes the event as follows:
"[...] Against a spectacular backdrop of mountains and winelands, hundreds of anti-apartheid veterans and supporters retraced the last steps taken in captivity by the world's most famous political prisoner.
Twenty years ago Mandela had got up at 4.30am, exercised, made phone calls, undergone a health check, packed his possessions into crates, and finally emerged into the glare of sunlight and global attention.
He wore a grey suit and tie. His wife, Winnie, was dressed in black. Behind them strode rank-and-file ANC members, who had been asked to don suits and look tough to provide a vague façade of security.
Today, marching on the same macadam path, the crowd formed a bouquet of pinks, yellows, greens and reds under a cloudless blue sky. They included teachers and nurses, farmhands and domestic workers, and numerous young people in T-shirts bearing Mandela's face who could have no memory of the release. [...]"
In 2005, HWMBO and I were able to travel to the beautiful country of South Africa, now open to the world. While the early ideals and hopes of the years immediately following Mandela's release have not worked out as well as many had hoped, it was very clear to us, even during our brief visit, that South Africans are profoundly proud of their country. Most continue to work towards the goals that Mandela still espouses, even now, at age 91. The tasks, difficult in the best of circumstances, have not only been rendered even more difficult by the harsh, untenable, inhumane and inhuman practices of the apartheid era that Mandela's release from prison officially ended. There has also been continuing dissent and division in the African National Congress (ANC) since Mandela's tenure as President of South Africa ended. There are many others more qualified and better informed than I to discuss these issues so I will not dwell on them here. But yesterday, Mandela's magic was abundantly felt, as reported here.
During our brief stay in Cape Town, HWMBO and I made a point of visiting Robben Island, where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment.
The entrance sign below greets today's visitors. It presumably greeted Mandela and other prisoners as they entered the premises. While it does not express the patent lie of "Arbeit macht frei" ("work liberates") at Nazi-era concentration camps nor the depairing message of "Abandon hope all ye who enter here" that awaited those unfortunates who entered Dante's Inferno, it sends a cautionary message about power to prospective inmates.
Mandela spent 18 years in this cell. His days were generally spent in the limestone quarries with other prisoners. The prisoners would ceaselessly haul slabs of rock from one side of the quarry to the other, generally under the blazing hot summer sun, with a small hollowed-out area in the hillside for use as a respite.
At Robben Island today, former prisoners serve as tour guides. Most, if not all, share their own stories and experiences with visitors, which makes any visit there quite personal. Their tales are not simply found in history books. These individuals have actually "been there and done that." One is truly brought face to face with living history. It is a striking reminder that the liberty that many of us take for granted can all too easily be taken away, even today, on flimsy excuses to suit the private agendas of those in power who have no fear of abusing that power and who see law as applying only to the actions of others, not to their own.
We have, unfortunately, seen striking abuses of that power since 11 February 1990. Not merely in South Africa but elsewhere in the world, even where there has been no history of apartheid. Unfortunately, we have witnessed some of the worst abuses from nations that supposedly pride themselves on their "rule of law."
Nelson Mandela made his first visit to the United States as South Africa's President in October 1994. He returned in 1998 in triumph on his last visit as head of state, receiving many honors, among them a Congressional Gold Medal and an honorary degree from Harvard University. In 1999, US President Bill Clinton visited Mandela in South Africa and accompanied him on a visit to his Robben Island cell.
Shamefully, in spite of all that had happened in the 1990s, the humanitarian awards Mandela received, and his apparently cordial relationship with President Clinton, for whatever arcane, mystifying and long-outdated reasons, the United States kept Nelson Mandela on a terror watch list until July 2008. He and ANC party members could only visit the US after receiving a waiver from the US Secretary of State. Congress passed a bill that was signed into law by the President in July 2008 that corrected this travesty of justice in time for Mandela's 90th birthday.
At long, long last ....
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